


The Stupid Plan

by Covinskey



Series: Withdrawal [2]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, Drug Use, M/M, Medicine, Minor Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, Strex Meds, pesedo therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 14:46:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4750235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Covinskey/pseuds/Covinskey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cass has managed to pull the wool over the eyes of everyone in Desert Bluffs. The only question is; can she get her brother out when he doesn't even know who she is?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stupid Plan

**Author's Note:**

> Cass and Braen belong to tumblr user Erika-youknowtheangel. Thanks for letting me use them! This diverges from their canon, it's my idea of what could happen. Check out their blog! It's great!

Cass locked herself in the motel room and allowed herself to sob openly.

Her shoulders shook, her breath came in short gasps, and she fell to her knees as she wept.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise. It shouldn’t have been. The ghosts in the walls had warned her what was happening, what was going on. Seeing Braen in that state, with those jagged scars across his face and that blank smile, drugged into peaceful oblivion…

She threw herself on the bed and used the pillow to muffle her sobs. He had recognised her! Barely, faintly, he had known who she was, but at the same time he had no idea.

He had had to ask her name! Braen, who had raised her, had always been there for her, had helped her and supported her, always, he had to ask her name!

There was a knock on the door, Cass froze. She held her breath, terrified that she had been heard, that she had been discovered, that it was revealed that she had been drawing on her scars and palming the StrexMeds.

Whoever it was knocked again, Cass couldn’t hide forever. She hastily wiped her eyes, stretched her mouth into a wide smile, and answered.

It was Paula, the old woman who lived in the motel. Her mouth was smiling wide, but her eyes looked faintly concerned.

“Are you alright dear?” she asked, “Have you been taking your medication?”

“Yes,” Cass lied, “I always do.”

Paula hesitated for a moment, and Cass felt her stomach clench in fear. “Maybe you should see someone about changing your dosage,” she murmured.

Cass nodded. “I’ll do that,” she promised.

Paula nodded, patted her cheek, told her she was a good girl, and left.

Cass returned to her room and let out a heavy breath.

**********

Braen felt so relaxed at home with Kevin. His warm body wrapped around Kevin’s warm body, the warmth from the smiling god fluttering from under the curtains. He felt so at ease, especially compared to… some form of unpleasantness he couldn’t really remember. But remembering wasn't really an issue, was it? Kevin said it best, of course, but really, unpleasantness behind meant happiness ahead

Kevin was snoring faintly, keeping Braen awake. He had been so willing to make up for lost productivity in a single sitting, so awake and energized, that he had worked for 12 hours after leaving the hospital. Kevin had picked him up, brought him home, reminded him that food and sleep were essential to productivity. It wasn't all about StrexMeds, he said.

Kevin often dismissed the StrexMeds. He said they were a burden to him, that they left him feeling raw and in need of reeducation if he didn't take them enough, he said they left him confused in between doses.

Braen was concerned for his boyfriend’s attitude, but it seemed to be of no consequence. He took his StrexMeds, he smiled, and he led such a productive life.

He traced little patterns into Kevin's skin. Mindless doodles that shifted into formulas for his new project...

He needed to sleep. He nuzzled against Kevin and tried to put thoughts of work from his mind.

**********

Kevin woke up to Braen screaming, thrashing, covered in sweat.

He scrambled away from Braen's swinging limbs, reaching for the bottle in the nightstand. One, no, two yellow and white pills should be enough. Kevin clutched the pills in his hand, using his other arm and legs to hold Braen still.

“It’ll be alright,” he said soothingly as Braen relaxed, “You’ll be happy soon! Isn’t it wonderful?”

Braen stopped struggling, but Kevin could feel his rapid heartbeat through his chest. “Just a nightmare,” he muttered breathlessly, as if he had run a marathon, “The same one…”

The pills were getting sticky in Kevin’s hand, but he still asked, “Which one?”

“The… the one with the girl.” He paused to take a breath, and for a single moment, Kevin felt a stab of jealousy and uncertainty that had him ready to put the pills in his own mouth. “The little girl,” Braen corrected, and Kevin’s impulse vanished.

“The little girl?” Kevin prompted, feeling curious. They had seldom talked about Braen’s nightmares, he would just hold him and give him StrexMeds if he hadn’t taken them already until they both went back to sleep.

“I feel like I know her,” Braen said insistently, “I just can’t remember her name.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Kevin suggested, kissing his shoulder. “Maybe if you remember, it’ll just make the nightmares worse.”

Braen nodded, twisting in Kevin’s arms to try and reach the nightstand. “I have them here, honey,” he said, keeping Braen close.

Braen smiled, turning so he and Kevin were face to face. “I love you,” he said as Kevin fed him one, then two pills. He swallowed them dry and let himself relax as he felt the waves of blissful contentment crash into him.

He fell asleep holding Kevin like that.

**********

Cass worked at the reeducation offices in the hospital. She covered basic reeducation, as well as post-reeducation therapy.

It was a month, a long, tedious month of filling out prescriptions, correcting wayward thoughts through the simple art of persuasion, and checking to make sure folk that had undergone more advanced reeducation had done so successfully. One long month of this heart-wrenching contribution to evil before any sort of progress could be made.

**********

Braen worked in the labs at the hospital. He was currently supervising the development of a new version of StrexMed that would last longer and be cheaper to produce.

It was a month, a hellish, nightmarish month of bad dreams, waking up Kevin in the middle of the night, taking far more StrexMeds than should be allowed, and nearly passing out in the lab from lack of sleep before he admitted he needed help.

**********

He recognized the tech he met as the nurse he met when he had been checked out of the hospital after his last reeducation. He couldn’t remember what it was for, so it probably hadn’t been anything terribly important.

Cass held a waxy smile on her face. It was killing her to see Braen like this, a little angry, a little uncomfortable. He didn’t recognise her at all.

“Why do I have to be here?” he asked after a moment, “I just need to increase my dosage, that’s all. I don’t need reeducation at this point.”

Cass looked at the forms in front of her so she didn’t have to meet his eye. “It says here you’ve been struggling with nightmares recently.”

“Just need to take StrexMeds a little more often, that’s all.”

“Wouldn’t you rather not have them to begin with?” she asked.

Braen shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t even remember them,” he told her, and they both knew he was lying.

Cass made a note, not of anything in particular, just a doodle to occupy her hands. “Alright,” she said, “Would you like the nightmares to stop? It’s not very productive is it, to have such disturbed sleep, for either you or… Kevin.”

Now Cass was uncomfortable. Kevin, his boyfriend. A man he was apparently living with. While she had been long-aware of… She just wished she had been introduced to him, been part of the traditional meet-the-family routine. Was it selfish to want that one bit of normalcy? To learn about her brother’s boyfriend from needling and prying, teasing and asking, instead of seeing it typed up in legible font on his personnel file?

Braen was nodding, seemingly oblivious to her discomforting thoughts. He had noticed the change in Kevin, drinking more coffee, yawning more, sounding progressively less cheerful on the radio. “I know,” he sighed, “But I don’t need reeducation at this level.”

“Well, it’s fairly apparent from your file that more advanced reeducations have had absolutely no effect,” Cass retorted, “So you can either work with me here or continue making life difficult for yourself and your boyfriend.”

That had an effect. Braen rubbed the back on his neck. “Alright.”

**********

The session lasted almost an hour, and by the end, Cass was horrified. Dozens of childhood memories, warped beyond recognition. A hundred synonyms for monster applied to her. She had seen the state Braen had been brought to the hospital in, but didn’t realize the full implications.

Granted, even when he agreed, getting him to talk about this familiar figure in the back of his mind was like pulling teeth. It seemed like the only way to keep him motivated was to bring up Kevin, over and over again.

How the hell could she help him? She was a nursing student, she had taken a grand total of one psychology course, she knew nothing about counselling or therapy, just that oxytocin was a bonding hormone. Or was it just a neurotransmitter?

She sat miserably in her motel room and stared at the walls, wondering if the ghosts would come tonight, would offer guidance and support or just tear her down for her failures.

As always, it was a mix of both. The hatred reduced her to tears (and so did some of the kindness), but it hardened her resolve. She would get Braen out of this, she would save him, and bring him somewhere safe, somewhere far away from Strex and its influence.

She had to hope.

**********

Braen received a package of pills the day before his next reeducation session. Attached was a note in mostly-legible handwriting.

> _Braen, these are StrexMeds at a lower concentration. Take them as you would your normal meds for 24 hours prior to our appointment_
> 
> _Cassandra_

He scowled, but obeyed. That night, he dreamed vividly, and even after, the images refused to fade from his mind. The feelings did a little, at least. He even fell back asleep.

The entire day, he felt faded, apart, distant. He was a grey blob against the bright warmth of the Smiling God. Everyone around him was so cheerful, and he smiled, and he smiled, and he smiled, but he could never quite match them.

He was more than ready to give Cass a piece of his mind when he arrived, but he didn’t.

She was smiling, of course, but there was something different about her. He recognized her, but at the same time, she was very familiar.

Her smile stretched into a grin, and he realised exactly who she was. He was about to shout, to raise his voice, when her hand clamped over his mouth.

“Shh!” she insisted, “Shh!”

He shoved her off, her head clunked against the desk. But he didn’t shout out again. He just stared at her, laying on the floor, clutching weakly at her head.

She was pitiful, terrifying, a monster and a child.

He didn’t remember anything, but he knew her. He needed to kill her, he needed to protect her. He grabbed her by the lapels of her lab coat and held her up.

“Who are you?” he hissed.

Cass squirmed, her toes barely touching the floor, her head throbbing. She hadn’t expected this, was terrified. Braen would never hurt her, she knew this, but her vision swam as her head pounded.

“I’m Cassandra!” she insisted, “I’m Cass! I’m a nurse and a reeducation tech!”

And he wanted to believe her, but he knew better. He wanted to wrap his hands around her throat, squeeze until there was nothing left of her but the shell of a monster. Maybe then the nightmares would stop.

He dropped her, and she nearly collapsed, but he just shifted his hands to her neck, thumbs above her airway, ready to squeeze. Her eyes were wide and terrified, her hands covered his, trying to pry his fingers away.

“Who are you?” he demanded roughly.

She didn’t cry. She had cried too much over the past few months. She had cried entirely too much. She looked frightened, but her eyes were stone. “I’m Cass,” she told him in a fairly level voice. “I’m your sister.”

It was true. Braen knew it. He had a sister, a monster, he could feel her pulse frantically under his hands. “You’re a monster.”

Cass thought of the evil she had done for Strex since coming undercover. “Sometimes,” she agreed.

Braen let her go again, only to scoop her up in a hug. Cass hugged him back, feeling a comfort she hadn’t known since she was a teenager. “I don’t know you,” Braen admitted, sounding so angry.

“It’s okay,” Cass promised, “It’s okay. Once the meds wear off, you’ll remember.”

“I need to keep you safe,” he told her, “That’s all I know, I need to keep you safe.”

“We need to leave,” she begged, “I came here to get you out.”

Braen stepped back, wary again. “This is my home, Cass,” he insisted, “I was born and raised here. This is where I belong.”

“You belong in a place where you’re drugged into submission every day? Where they torture any independent thoughts out of your head? Nobody belongs here, nobody deserves this!”

“Cass,” he started, and instantly, she recognized her brother through the scars, the determined, fiercely caring person that had raised her to be the exact same, “You need to leave. If they find out what you’re doing, they’ll reeducate you or worse.”

She folded her arms and set her jaw. “You can’t make me leave,” she argued childishly, “I’ll stay until you come with me. Each day, it’s more and more likely that I’ll be found out.”

“I’ll be safe here,” he promised.

“You’ll be a slave! Drugged, tortured, and working to make the drugs and torture instruments even more efficient!”

“It’s all I know how to do!” he shouted, before she shushed him again. After a couple moments of tense silence, nobody came knocking on the door. “It’s all I know how to do,” he insisted at a whisper.

“You were going to be a Doctor,” Cass hissed back, “You were the smartest in your class, you know more about neuroscience and pharmacology than anyone else on the planet. You must be a complete idiot if you think all you can offer the world is StrexMeds for 87% of the price.”

That seemed to work. Braen didn’t offer more of a response than “It’s 84% of the price.”

They were dead quiet for a moment. Cass took the opportunity to check the back of her head where she had hit it. She found a spot somewhere in the mess of her hair that hurt painfully when she pressed it, but there was no blood at all. She’d be fine.

“I need to think about it,” he decided.

Cass nodded, grateful that she got at least this. “I’ll make a note that the reeducation was a tentative success, pending a follow up in three days.”

“Alright.” Braen made to leave.

“Wait, Braen.”

“What?”

“Keep taking the pills I sent you. Otherwise you’ll forget.”

Braen smiled. “I will,” he promised.

Then he was gone, and Cass was left with nothing but hope again.

**********

The next three days were some of the most tense in Cass’s short life. Every time she made eye contact, every time she smiled, every patient she saw, she wondered if they would see through her, would see the lump on the back of her head, would see the way her smile was fixed in place, the way she fumbled on greetings and prayers to the Smiling God.

In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Braen refused. What would she do? What could she do? Force him to come along somehow?

No, no, no, he would come. He had to. He had to. If all of this was for nothing, Cass didn’t know what she’d do with herself. Leave him, maybe? Forget everything? Go back to the ‘real world,’ pretend she never had a brother? She could never do that. Never.

She couldn’t stop herself from fidgeting all the way through her last meeting before she saw him again.

As soon as her last client left, she had about 5 minutes before Braen showed up again. Anything could have happened to him in the last three days. He could have started taking the full-dose StrexMeds again, he could have been caught, he could have turned her in, he could have gone for a full reeducation, he could have-

He walked into her office without knocking. “I guess we should head out now?”

Instantly, the tension was gone. A moment later, it was back full force. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I have the Jeep. What’s your plan?”

Cass pulled a small backpack out from the desk drawer. “We drive,” she said, “We drive and drive until we find a place to stay, a place where they can’t find us anymore.”

There was a pause. “That’s it?”

Cass shrugged. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“They’ll hunt us down, they’ll drag us back, they’ll-”

“Find a replacement. Probably.”

“Probably. You’re staking your life on a probably.”

Cass sighed. “I came out here to find you, because the ghosts in the walls told me you were dying. They told me how to get in, how to disguise myself, and how to get you out. They told me how to escape, and I trust them.”

“Since when did you start taking life advice from… ghosts?”

“Since when did you decide to sign up to become a torture expert?”

“Hey! I never tortured anymore! I never hurt anyone.”

Cass nodded, looking away. “I know,” she assured him, feeling guilty, “I’m sorry.”

There was an awkward pause in which each debated methods of comforting the other, before Cass broke the silence, “So, you have a car?”

“A Jeep.”

“Alright.”

They left the office and didn’t look back.

**********

Cass had thought ahead, and so had Braen. Between the two of them, they had brought enough water and food to last several days, at least until they reached the next town. It was a small, unnoteworthy community. Braen pumped gas, Cass used the few American dollars she had to replenish their food. Braen borrowed her makeup to cover his scars, while Cass’s had been eyebrow pencil to begin with. Braen left his leather jacket in the trunk, Cass hid her hair under a baseball cap. It was the best they could do to disguise themselves.

They tag teamed the driving, one would take the wheel while the other slept as best as they could with the bumpy road and the wind. They never stopped overnight. The desert was hot, the air was dry, but they were free.

Braen kept taking the StrexMeds at the lower doses. Cass knew, even if he didn’t, that he shouldn’t go into withdrawal again when they were on the road. Hopefully, it would be a little better than before, but she wanted a little more control over the situation when it finally did happen.

After a couple days, Cass turned them off the interstate and onto the open desert. Braen didn’t question it. Several hours later, they reached a cabin. Braen didn’t ask how she knew it was there. He was clenching his seatbelt and fidgeting.

“Are you alright?”

He nodded tightly.

“You didn’t stop taking your meds, did you?”

He shook his head.

“Alright.” She parked, before remembering, “Are you having flashbacks to your last withdrawal?”

Once again, he shook his head. “I don’t remember it at all, actually. It’s just… I put something in the trunk that needs to be unpacked.”

Cass hadn’t brought a change of clothes, she was wearing the same yellow shirt and black slacks she had worn when they left. The lab coat had been abandoned in a trash can in the first town they stopped in. She hadn’t looked in the trunk of the Jeep.

“Okay?”

Braen unbuckled with a sigh, and opened the trunk. Cass followed a beat after, and gasped loudly enough they could hear her in Desert Bluffs when she saw what was in it.

A silver box, filling the space almost entirely. It was covered in shining panels and blinking lights. “Braen what is that?” Cass asked, her voice much higher than normal.

He didn’t answer, he just lifted it out and pulled it towards the cabin by its built-in wheels.

Cass followed, asking him repeatedly what it was, what he had done. She briefly considered hopping in the Jeep and driving herself away, in case it was part of some elaborate plot to hand her over to Strex.

Braen said nothing, just set it in the middle of the floor in the main area. Cass took stock of the ratty sofa, moth-eaten curtains, and dusty rug while he began pushing buttons. There was a hiss, then the lid slid off.

Kevin was curled up inside, sound asleep, a few tubes and wires connected to his skin. He was still fully dressed, and there was a bandage on his head.

“Braen, what did you do?” Cass asked, and impressed herself with how level her voice was.

“I couldn’t leave him,” Braen snarled, “I couldn’t. He... “ he rubbed his eyes with his hand. “I don’t remember anything,” he admitted, “But I know they did things to him. Awful things, and it was my fault. I couldn’t… I love him. I love him, Cass, I couldn’t leave him.”

Cass watched the steady rise and fall of Kevin’s chest and didn’t dispute any of what Braen was saying. Maybe she was lucky, in a sense. Somehow, the universe aligned to give them that awkward meet-the-family moment anyway.

“His breathing is regular,” she finally said, kneeling beside the box and placing a trained hand at his throat. “And his pulse is fairly steady. What’s this you’re giving him?” she gestured to the two IV’s connected to each arm.

“Uh, one is a sedative to keep him sleeping, the other is just the same as the StrexMeds.”

Cass nodded. She was a nurse, she had this. “Alright,” she decided, “Alright. Braen, you go to the bedroom. We need to get you off the StrexMeds cold turkey. Give me your pills, I know they’re in your pocket.”

He relinquished the bottle reluctantly and followed her directions. This bedroom had no windows and only one door. There was no bathroom, but that couldn’t be helped. Hopefully he wouldn’t be in there too long. A few minutes later, Cass returned with a few tins of food and a gallon of water.

“You’ll take care of Kevin?” he asked, and he seemed so helpless when he did, like a small child.

“I promise,” she said. She hugged him tightly, before leaving the room and barring the door.

Now alone with Kevin, she quickly got to work, first lifting him out of the box.

This proved to be more difficult than she anticipated. He was heavy, and the wires to the heart monitor and IV tubes were very short. Eventually, she decided to just unplug the heart monitor and sedative, leaving in the StrexMeds. Once he woke up she’d give him the half-dose pills, then nothing, to wean him off.

She left him in the recovery position, the box was tilted on its side so the tube would reach. The heart monitor wires were long enough, so she reattached them to his skin so she had that on.

The label was still on the IV bag for the sedative, thank the gods. Cass did some quick math, and figured if Kevin was going to wake up, it would be in a few hours. He’d be hungry, and frankly, at the moment, so was she.

Their food stocks were low, which meant a town run at some point. But not until Braen was off the StrexMeds entirely, and not until Kevin was awake and stable. There was a kitchen in the cabin, but the ancient gas stove was rusted over and wouldn’t turn on. So much for a hot meal. At least the fridge was humming, but something abandoned in it had turned green and fuzzy, taking over most of the space. There was running water too, but it probably needed to be filtered.

Cass sighed. She had taken an outdoor survival course when she was a kid. She knew what to do. Probably.

There was a fireplace in the living room and a dusty pot in the cupboard. She filled the pot, built a fire, and set it on the flames.

As the water started to boil, she could hear Braen starting to shout in the next room. Mostly incomprehensible jargon, a few threats. He sounded frightened. Cass shoved a chair against the door, before laying facedown on the couch and covering her head with a pillow. She couldn’t bear to hear it.

At some point, the yelling died down. At some point, Cass dozed off.

Kevin woke up with a groan. Cass gasped and jumped off the couch. Aside from Kevin, it was dead quiet in the cabin.

Cass knelt by his side and quickly checked his vital signs as he started to stir. Heartbeat: good. Breathing: regular. Eyes reacting to light. Hand curled in hers upon request.

He didn’t speak for a long moment, didn’t attempt to sit up or run away. Cass unplugged the StrexMed IV tube and helped him drink a little water.

“This is new,” he said suddenly, in the lilting voice. He sounded curious, with a dash of excitement that left Cass very unsettled.

“You’re not in Desert Bluffs anymore, Kevin,” she told him, “You’re in a safe place, where they can’t hurt you.”

He snickered, “Desert Bluffs is safe, silly! We don’t need to leave, we have everything we need, right there!”

“Kevin,” Cass started, trying to keep her voice steady. She could do this, she could convince him. She had already convinced Braen, “How about we stay here for a while? How does that sound. I have StrexMeds for you.”

He looked at the bottle in her hand greedily, and Cass felt a surge of guilt. How could she lie to him and manipulate him like this? She was as bad as Strex. But it was all for the greater good, after all. Wasn’t it?

Her musing was interrupted by a tap on the bedroom door. She left Kevin to his thoughts and opened it a crack.

“Braen? How are you doing?”

“Braen? Honey?” Kevin was at her side in an instant.

“I-I think it’s over,” he said hoarsely. “I don’t... wanna do that again. Can I come out now?”

Cass moved the chair and opened the door fully. Braen hugged her tightly, wordlessly. He remembered everything. He remembered too much.

Kevin was hovering over the sibling sort-of reunion. “Braen? You’re different.”

He let Cass go and grabbed Kevin instead, peppering his face with kisses. “It’s gonna be alright,” he promised, “I’m gonna keep you safe.” He rested their foreheads together and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Kevin.”

“Braen… what’s wrong? Did you take your StrexMeds? This girl has some, do you have yours? Braen, honey?”

He glanced between Cass and Kevin. “It’s alright, I’m alright. I don’t need them anymore.”

Kevin looked completely crestfallen. “You need to take your meds, Braen. You’re so silly! They’ll put a real smile on your face!” Even as he spoke, he perked back up.

“I am smiling,” Braen promised him, “Cass and I will make sure you’re alright.”

Kevin’s face contorted for a moment, before he smiled warmly at Cass.

“I’m very happy.”

They went to bed shortly after. Braen and Kevin took the bedroom, Cass took the couch. In the middle of the night, Kevin left.

**********

Cass managed to convince Braen not to go after him. Barely. She held him back, literally. She tried to comfort him, but he locked himself in his room and probably cried.

Kevin had taken a good deal of food and water, as well as the remaining StrexMed pills. Interestingly enough, he had left the Jeep in favor of going on foot.

Even as Cass looked out of the window, the faint tracks he had made were buried under the sand.

**********

It was a few days before either of them went into town. They weren’t sure if Kevin had made it back to Desert Bluffs, if Strex was on their tails, if they would be arrested if they so much as stepped into town.

Eventually, Cass went, tucking her hair up into a cap and hiding behind a huge pair of sunglasses. She returned to the cabin like Father Christmas, burdened with food, water, and a few clothes, as well as some soaps so they could be clean.

It was enough for now.

**********

They cleaned the cabin. It was slow, it was leisurely, it was just something to occupy their time. As it became apparent they weren’t going to be snatched away and brainwashed back, the cabin became a little homelier. The crackling fire, the pillow on the couch, the shoes by the doorway.

They scrubbed the mold away. They fought over shampoo. (Braen insisted his hair had no reason to smell like fresh strawberries) They spoke a little at first, and then more.

They slowly became siblings again.

**********

Cass slept on the couch. Braen took the bed. At first, they were going to swap, but Braen kept having nightmares.

On those nights, Cass would make hot chocolate and sit with him until he felt calm again. It wasn’t really a substitute for StrexMeds and Kevin, but Braen appreciated it all the same.

After a few weeks, he started to talk to her about them.

It was bits and pieces, never a big description. “When they tested them on Kevin” “When I had that talk with my boss” “When you came home for the first time.”

Cass didn’t understand most of these snippets. She didn’t ask for more elaboration, or why they were frightening either.

**********

The ghosts in the walls kept coming. They would come to Cass as she sat down, trying to collect her thoughts. They would come to Braen when he tried to sleep. The offered support, the offered insults. They told the truth. They lied.

They kept referencing events that hadn’t happened yet, that were impossible.

Eventually, Cass and Braen learned to tune them out.

**********

They needed to get money in some form. Getting a job was out of the question. Working online, also a no-go, it was too public.

Cass finally gave in and started stocking shelves at the grocer. Nothing dramatic happened. Maybe Strex had forgotten about her and Braen?

**********

It was a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. But Braen had been complaining about being bored at home, and TV required wires, and internet required wires, and wires meant putting the cabin on the map.

Cass bought a radio.

She shouldn’t have.

But she did it anyway.

Besides, there were lots of shows besides Kevin’s right?

And predictably, it was the first station Braen turned to the moment he saw it. Kevin’s voice crackled out of the speakers.

“... so it all worked out in the end, at least for people who knew their place.”

Braen collapsed, relieved. Kevin was at least mostly safe, for now. He had made it back to Desert Bluffs, he wasn’t dead in the middle of the desert.

“And now, the story you’ve been looking forward to, the replacement of the head scientist down in the labs. As you all know, the form head scientist has (there was a strange gulping noise) vanished. Now, competition was stiff for the slot. I haven’t seen so much blood since, oh, I don’t even know. Anyway, the results are in, and here at StrexCorp Synernists Inc, I’d like to congratulate Dr. Colleen Robinson for becoming our new head scientist! And now, a word from our sponsors.”

**********

Roughly three months after arriving to the cabin for the first time, Braen left without a word.


End file.
